TikTok hits billion downloads

Feb 28, 2019 by The Passage Team

Short video app TikTok, owned by the world’s most valuable startup ByteDance, has crossed 1 billion downloads, said a report by Sensor Tower, a market insights research firm.

TikTok is giving tough competition to the likes of Facebook and Instagram. Facebook was installed 711 million times in 2018 while Instagram was downloaded 444 million times. TikTok, which started overseas expansion in September 2017, clocked about 663 million installations last year.

The one-billion downloads include TikTok’s lite versions as well as regional variants. However, the downloads don’t account for Chinese Android market, where TikTok was launched under the name Douyin, which means the original number could be much higher.

TikTok tops the most downloaded list of non-gaming apps in the US in 2018, and is ranked fourth across the globe. The app is in third position in terms of total number of installs globally in Android and iOS in January 2019. The short-video platform has added 71.3 million users overseas (excluding China) - 2.6-times growth against the same month last year.

India accounted for 25% of downloads in 2018, and 43% of total downloads in January 2019.

The Passage Team

The Passage is committed to creating in-depth content over technology industry across Asia with a focus on emerging startups in the technology, healthcare, education, food, tech, travel & mobility segments.